When our satellites search for other planets that might harbor life, they always search for water. But now, for the first time, astronomers have detected around a burgeoning solar system a sprawling cloud of water vapor that’s cold enough to form comets, which could eventually deliver oceans to dry planets. And with oceans, life could spring up–or maybe migrate to the planet from another place.
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Using its near-infrared vision to peer 9 billion years back in time, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered an extraordinary population of tiny, young galaxies that are brimming with star formation. Most of these galaxies are a hundred times less massive than the Milky Way, yet they churned out stars at a furious pace. However, it’s a mystery why these newly found dwarf galaxies were making batches of stars at such a high rate.
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After a drink or two, having sex is a natural inclination. Will the lack of gravity be a problem? (It could lead to some interesting "positions"). A trip to even one of our closest stars would take decades and possibly even hundreds of years, spanning multiple generations.
But scientists aren’t sure humans can procreate safely in the microgravity of space. So far, humans haven’t managed to send a probe beyond even our own solar system, let alone to the nearest star more than 4 light-years away. A light-year, the distance light travels in a single year, is about 6 trillion miles.
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There may be alien life out there, after all: Using the Harps telescope in Chile, a European observatory has announced "major" alien planet findings: 50 previously unknown "exoplanets" that could harbor life. These new worlds include 16 "super-Earths." Astronomers have also discovered a diamond in the sky.
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